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^he  Smoky  galley 


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By 


birger  Sanclzen 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


IJMVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

U.  )S  ANGELES 

LIBRARY 


The  Smoky  Valle^ 


Btrger  Sandzen 


The  Smoky  Valley 

Reproductions  of  a  Series  of  Lithographs  of  the  Smoky  Valley 

in  Kansas 

Birger  Sandzen 

An  Introduction  by  Minna  K.  Powell 


CARLJ.SMALLEY 

Kansas  City,  Missouri 
ic/ia 


145374 


Copyright,  K)22,  by  Carl  J.  Smalley 

Kansas  City.  Mo. 

Published  December,  ic/22 


Printed  by  the  ^Republican  Press, 

at  McPherson,  Kansas, 

in  the  United  States  of  America 


Sandzen  and  His  Friend,  tke  Smolcy. 

When  Birger  Sandzen  looks  into  tke  seamed  face  of  a  pioneer 
farmer  of  Kansas,  he  sees  the  conquest  of  a  spirit.  When  he  looks 
upon  the  face  of  the  Kansas  prairie,  he  sees  the  conquest  of  the 
wilderness  and  he  makes  the  world  feel  the  courage  of  the  Kansas 
spirit  and  the  poWer  of  Kansas  sinews. 

An  artist  who  penetrates  below  the  surface  of  his  subject  and 
sees  the  soul  of  it  looking  out,  Birger  Sandzen  Was  foreordained  to 
celebrate  in  black  and  white  and  in  color,  the  moods  and  the 
meaning  of  the  Smoky  Hill  River,  which  winds  so  peacefully  in 
and  out  among  the  farms  of  central  Kansas. 

The  Smoky  Hill  River  is  not  much  wider  than  a  creek,  and 
the  early  homesteader  valued  it  chiefly  because  it  watered  his  land 
and  his  stock. 

Then  came  Birger  Sandzen,  artist,  who  settled  near  the 
stream  in  the  town  of  Lindsborg.  Almost  immediately  a  deep  af- 
fection sprang  up  between  the  artist  and  the  river.  Accustomed 
to  a  land  of  many  streams  and  lakes,  the  artist  haunted  the  banks 
of  the  river  that  seemed  to  speak  to  him  of  home.  He  served  the 
friendly  stream  b))  celebrating  its  moods  and  sudden  turnings,  and 
the  stream  taught  the  artist  h$  gentle  gradations  its  own  affinity^ 
for  the  prairie. 

It  was  so  that  Birger  Sandzen  learned  to  love  the  Kansas 
landscape.  But  first  he  sought  the  shadoWed  banks  of  the  Smoky. 
By    sunlight    and    moonlight    he   studied  it.       Following  its  grace- 


ful  bindings,  Ke  caught  the  poetry  of  Kansas,—  the  tired  droop  of 
cattle  as  they  came  to  drink  at  dusk,  the  grouping  of  horses  in 
hillside  pastures,  huddled  cottonwoods  like  shy  children  along  the 
clean  banks  of  the  stream. 

Finally  the  riVer  taught  him  to  see  the  masterpieces  of  art  in 
the  strong  and  rugged  faces  of  the  pioneer  farmers  whose  land 
stretched  along  the  riser's  bank. 

He  saw  faces  in  which  courage  had  drawn  with  a  true  hand 
lines  of  self-conquest.  He  saw  the  beauty  of  fingers  knotted  and 
bent  with  much  serving  and  the  glory  of  dimmed  e^es.  The 
pioneer  men  and  ^omen  of  Kansas  \\>ere  crowned  by  Sandzen 
\\>ith  the  splendor  of  their  deeds. 

But  always  he  returned  to  the  quiet  river,  grateful  for  the 
woods  that  hugged  its  banks  and  were  mirrored  in  the  water.  His 
passion  for  the  Smoky  grew  and  deepened.  It  became  to  him  the 
heart  of  Kansas,  and  Kansas,  through  the  Smoky\  became  his  friend. 

And  alxv'ay^s,  as  he  tramped  up  and  down  the  river's  banks, 
he  saw  in  miniature  the  grandeur  he  was  later  on  to  find  in  the 
Rockies  and  the  master))  he  was  to  sense  in  the  Grand  Cannon 
of  the  Colorado. 

As  he  painted  outcroppings  of  rock  in  the  hilrj)  pastures,  he 
was  preparing  unconsciously  for  his  work  of  grOing  expression  to 
the  gigantic  cliffs  and  mountains  of  the  great  West.  Tributaries 
of  the  Smoky\  overflowing  their  banks  in  the  spring  freshets,  ran 
dry  in  summer  and  provided  the  artist  with  beds  deeply  fissured 
like  their  titanic  model,  the  Grand  Canyon. 


The  Kills  near  Lindsborg,  are  small  replicas  of  the  Rockies. 
They  slope  to  the  v*ery  bank  of  the  Smoky  and  Birger  Sandzen 
climbed  from  bank  to  summit  where  he  looked  out  ov^er  the  wide 
prairie  and  sau>  how  lov'el})  it  was. 

Since  then  he  has  ne\>er  tired  of  painting  the  landscape  that 
is  the  heart  of  Kansas,  vibrating  with  the  heroic  toil  and  patience 
of  the  past  and  the  hope  of  the  future. 

Thus  it  is  that  v?hen  Mr.  Sandzen  makes  a  study  of  the 
moon  stealing  up  behind  the  willow's  before  the  flush  of  afternoon 
is  quite  gone,  he  puts  into  the  picture  not  only  the  objects  a 
stranger  might  see,  but  also  the  deep  \o*0e  he  bears  the  river  and 
the  land  it  has  enriched. 

As  a  lithographer  Mr.  Sandzen  has  no  rivals  in  this  country, 
perhaps  none  anywhere.  His  love  of  the  open  is  that  of  a  poet, 
to  whom  the   out-of-doors   tells    something  of  the   immanence   of 

God. 

Sometimes  his  landscapes  express  the  poignant  loneliness 
that  broods  over  the  Kansas  prairie.  Oftener  he  sees  the  delight- 
ful homeliness  of  the  farmsteads,  changing  the  Smok})  River  Val- 
ley^ from  a  wilderness  to  a  place  of  hearthstones  and  human  hap- 
piness. 

Minna  K.  Powell 


bummer 


flESSj^SIftS' 


Storrj?  Pasture  With  CottonvCood  Grm)e 


'^g*«si^ 


"  '"-~^^    ,;•     . 


■feAte  <fc% 


The  Old  Homestead 


Portrait  Stud}) 


Twiligkt 


In  The  Meadou> 


Home  of  A  Pioneer 


Smok;9  Ri^er 


Hilltop 


■ 


WilW 


Horses  in  a  Hill})  Pasture 


&*4  ^€cag<^**-  ^-* 


Rn?er  Motif 


r:vv 


Abandoned  Farmhouse 


Trees  and  Hills 


Willows  b;9  TKe  5mok>)  Ri\)er 


Olof  Olson's  Homestead 


Pond  With  Cottonwood  Trees 


■ 


;-'■'--.  - 


4     I  r  A)**   i 


Hill}?  Pasture  With  Cotf  s 


In  Tke  Park 


Ri\)erbank 


1 


Copies 

of 

the 

lithographs    reproduced   in    this 

^o 

ume, 

limited 

to 

m 

proofs  each,  may  be  obtained 

from 

the 

pub- 

lisher. 

P 

rices 

from  six  to  fift$  dollars  each. 

CARL  J.  SMALLEY, 

Kansas  City,  Mo. 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 

NOV  2  0  1S§*  iL 


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